Location

Canberra

Status

Current

The project brings together leading research teams and industry partners from around the world to tackle the most important sources of efficiency loss in silicon solar cells. We will develop powerful new methods to identify these loss mechanisms, and new approaches to reduce their impact.

Project innovation

The project will identify important sources of power loss in silicon photovoltaic technology across the entire production chain, from silicon ingot growth, through to wafers, cells and modules. New methods for detecting and eliminating defects in silicon modules will be developed, and then applied in industry, leading to more efficient and reliable photovoltaic modules. This joint project between ANU and UNSW involves world-leading institutes and companies such as Jinko Solar (China), the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Research (Germany), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (USA), and BT Imaging (Australia).

Benefit

The project will lead to more efficient and reliable silicon photovoltaic modules in mass production, which will in turn result in lower costs for solar electricity for Australian households.